Europe

Germany is embarking on an innovative project to turn a hard coal mine into a giant battery that can store surplus solar and wind energy and release it when supplies are lean. The Prosper-Haniel coal mine in the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia will be converted into a 200 megawatt pumped-storage hydroelectric reservoir that acts like a giant battery. The capacity is enough to…

If you fly over a forest and look down, you’ll see every green tree and plant reaching to the heavens to absorb the ultimate energy source: sunlight. What a contrast when you look down on a city or town with its naked roofs, asphalt roads and concrete sidewalks, all ignoring the sun’s beneficence! Research shows…

Scotland has stopped generating electricity from coal for the first time in more than 100 years, as its Longannet power station, north of the capital Edinburgh, switched off the last of its four generating units. Its owner, Scottish Power, said the high cost of connecting to the grid was to blame. The power station used…

EU nations have refused to back a limited extension of the pesticide glyphosate’s use, threatening withdrawal of Monsanto’s Roundup and other weedkillers from shelves if no decision is reached by the end of the month. Contradictory findings on the carcinogenic risks of the chemical have thrust it into the centre of a dispute among EU and…

Photo courtesy of RS1. Leave it to Germany to build a bicycle autobahn that connect 10 cities within its borders. The goal? To take some 50,000 vehicles off the actual highways and make commuting by bike a much easier — and safer — proposition. The idea was sparked six years ago when a cultural project caused the one-day closure of…

German architect André Broessel, of Rawlemon, has looked into his crystal ball and seen the future of renewable energy. In this case it’s a spherical sun-tracking solar energy-generating globe — essentially a giant glass marble on a robotic steel frame. But this marble is no toy. It concentrates both sunlight and moonlight up to 10,000 times…

Malta has begun the process of banning glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup. Malta—the only country to actively vote against the extension of the chemical’s use—has already seen 25 localities ban the substance. It would be the first EU country to ban glyphosate nationwide. Though, France is currently considering their own ban. “Malta’s position remains against the use of glyphosate…